ETF Winners in Sluggish Market

The flood of money into exchange-traded funds is one of those perennial subjects—it's just less perennial in 2014. That's because stocks' direction-less start to 2014 slowed ETF inflows. Even after investors' wallets reopened in April, a $1.7 trillion business accustomed to nearly 30% yearly growth is expanding at just a few percentage points so far this year, with $35 billion in net new money year to date, according to ETF.com. The dry spell leaves clues as to which ETF makers win new investors when the going gets tough. Some clues are straightforward—investors love low-cost investing. Others are more...